A New Perspective

By

Judy Fayard

May 22, 2013

Born around 1267 in a village near Florence, Giotto di Bondone was a pivotal figure in Western art. According to Giorgio Vasari's "Lives of the Artists," the shepherd boy was discovered by Florentine painter Cimabue, who spotted him drawing a sheep on a smooth rock. Apprenticed to Cimabue, young Giotto soon surpassed his master; departing from the rigid codes of Byzantine-influenced medieval art, he "brought back to life the true art of painting, introducing the drawing from nature of living persons, which had not...